from the best-not-to-infringe-on-this-one dept

theodp writes "Q. How many Bank of America inventors does it take to screw a customer? A. Eight, according to U.S. Patent No. 7,797,212, which was awarded to BofA Tuesday for its Refund Request Tool, an "invention" that aims to put an end to "refund shopping" by pesky customers who "drive over to a different bank branch in the hope of finding a more sympathetic [bank] employee" to forgive their NSF/OD or other fees. From the patent: "For example, if a customer refuses a refund initially offered, the bank employee may process the refusal as the distribution of a $0.00 refund. Thus, for subsequent refund requests, the server 101 may treat the occurrence as having already having distributed a refund, and might not allow this refund to be decisioned again. Instead, the server 101 may simply transmit a message corresponding to the 'No Refund Available' to the bank employee at the second branch terminal 151, indicating that no refund, not even the previously-offered refund amount, should be offered to the customer.""